The campaign kickoff for a slimmed-down Jobs Act of 2010, which would approve the sale of half a billion dollars in general-purpose bonds to fund energy retrofits at Washington State public schools, is scheduled for 3:00 this afternoon at McClure Middle School in Queen Anne.
House and Senate Dems tacked the bill authorizing the referendum (Ref. 52), originally written by Rep. Hans Dunshee (D-44, Everett) and jokingly known as “Hans Bonds,” onto the state budget at the end of this year’s special legislative session. The vote was preceded by seemingly endless haggling over the size of the bonds and the scope of the energy retrofitting program.
State treasurer Jim McIntire was among the most vocal opponents of the original Jobs Act of 2010, because he feared that the original, much-larger Jobs Act of 2010 could have harmed Washington State’s credit rating by forcing the state to raise its statutorily-set debt limit too much.
Now, however, the referendum includes just $500 million in bonds, which will be financed in part by an extension of the state tax on bottled water tax, which was supposed to sunset in 2013 (McIntire is OK the measure now that it has been scaled back). If the referendum passes, the state will have to raise its debt limit 1.5 percent. According to the campaign’s web site, the debt would be “paid back over time by the districts with the savings created by updating to more energy efficient systems.”
The campaign claims the program would create some 30,000 new construction jobs.
